Romania's rally: Comeback stuns Ukraine at Billie Jean King Cup tennis on Amelia Island

FERNANDINA BEACH — Down two matches to none, needing a clean sweep to extend Romania's run in the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge, Ana Bogdan didn't lose heart.

All it took was a little Instagram inspiration.

"I was watching the photos on Instagram, really, all the people who had qualified already," she said. "I was like, we're going to be there. We're going to see our names there on those pictures, and it's going to be Romania qualifying this time."

With a bold lineup shakeup, nine hours of grit and an effort to remember from iron women Bogdan and Jaqueline Cristian, Romania roared back from the brink of elimination to deny the home-away-from-home Ukrainian squad 3-2 in Saturday's Billie Jean King Cup qualifying round at Racquet Park at Omni Amelia Island.

Bogdan and Cristian, just barely removed from winning their reverse singles matches earlier in the afternoon — only a 30-minute interval for Cristian from her 2-hour, 18-minute contest — stunned Ukraine's doubles specialists Lyudmyla Kichenok and Nadiia Kichenok 6-2, 7-6 (9-7) under the early-evening skies of Fernandina Beach.

"Both [singles] matches in a regular tournament would be great upsets," Romania captain Horia Tecau said. "I'm very proud of the way they fought today."

For Northeast Florida, the qualifier — organized through the Svitolina Foundation, which promotes tennis programs in Ukraine — brought a long-awaited return for top-level tennis after an absence of more than a decade. After 29 years of the Bausch & Lomb Invitational at Amelia Island from 1980 to 2008, and two years of WTA Tour competition at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, tennis had bypassed the First Coast.

Romania's rally dashed the championship hopes of Ukraine, which had relocated its home match to Florida because of Russia's invasion, but cued jubilation and a fresh round of "Ro-ma-ni-a!" chants from scores of Romanian supporters.

Cup organizers reported the 0-2 comeback was only the ninth since the tournament adopted a best-of-5 format in 1995, and it was Romania's first-ever rally from a two-match hole.

Their reward: A ticket to the final stage, the World Cup of Tennis in Spain in the fall, the first time they've made that field since the premier international team tournament for women's tennis adopted its present format in 2020. They'll be there alongside the United States, Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Poland and Slovakia, as well as automatic qualifiers Canada, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic.

'WORST DAY': HEARTBREAKER FOR UKRAINE

When the sun rose Saturday over Amelia Island, Ukraine looked like a near-lock to make its temporary Florida homestand a winner. After Elina Svitolina and Lesia Tsurenko won their opening singles matches Friday, Ukraine needed to win only one of Saturday's three matches.

"For us, it's the worst day," Ukraine captain Mikhail Filima said. "I don't remember in my mind three matches in a row having a lot of chances where we cannot win."

But Svitolina ran into a dogged opponent in Bogdan, who had lost her last seven games Friday but came out a whole new player to beat the top-ranked Ukrainian 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in a 2-hour, 51-minute epic.

The third set alone consumed 76 minutes, with nine deuces in the second game and seven in the eighth. Bogdan fell behind 2-0 in the set and trailed 40-15 in the third game, but fought back to break Svitolina's serve and never looked back.

"We had a lot of chances," Filima said.

UNLIKELY DOUBLES DUO LIFTS ROMANIA

It was only moments after Cristian charged back from behind to top Ukraine's Tsurenko 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, when she learned her weekend wasn't yet done.

Romania captain Tecau pulled the trigger on a daring decision, substituting the hot hands of Bogdan and Cristian in place of the planned doubled pairing of Anca Todoni and Mara Gae.

"They were on a high and confident, and they were seeing the ball big," Tecau said.

Never mind that Bogdan said that she had only played doubles with Cristian four or five times before, not since 2023 and never in the Billie Jean King Cup. Never mind that Ukraine's Kichenok twins have been feared for years in doubles, with Lyudmyla winning the mixed doubles at Wimbledon last summer. And never mind that both Romanians had just played grueling, high-stakes singles matches.

"I was like, I'm ready, and I'm going to go full energy," Bogdan said. "Doesn't matter if I'm tired or not. I know if I have it in my mind, I know the body will keep up."

"I kept going with the confidence that I had from the singles, and I think it was a big impulse to win the match," Cristian said.

The Romanian connection this time: instant.

"For me, the challenge was to be active at the net, because it's not something that I do every week in the tournaments," Bogdan said. "So I said, you can do it, you can make it, just be there and focus."

They exploited miscues to seize the first set, then came a back-and-forth second set with some controversy — Ukraine lost a potential break-point chance after a disputed touch call with the score 4-3 — and a pair of great escapes. Bogdan fought off two Ukrainian set points to force a tiebreaker.

In that tiebreaker, Romania clawed back from a 4-1 hole, and even though Ukraine warded off two match points, Bogdan crushed a return to ignite the celebrations.

History, made in Amelia Island.

"It's time to also enjoy the moment, because the last 24 hours were not easy," Cristian said. "So now we just want to enjoy it and take it in."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Billie Jean King Cup: Romania 2-0 rally vs. Ukraine at Amelia Island